As a soon-to-be-parent, I'm worried about how people online will interact with my kid once they have a phone or tablet. The good news for parents struggling with this now: Apple's iOS 26 brings more parental controls to iPhones.
Parents can already control how much screen time their kids have, manage their child's App Store purchases and more. Some of the new controls can detect and blur nudity in certain apps, and your child will have to ask for access to interact with unknown numbers.
Here are some of the kid's safety features iOS 26 brings to iPhones. My kid's not here yet so I couldn't test these features myself, but I'll report back later.
Note that many of these safety features are automatically enabled in iOS 26 as long as they are attached to a phone number and Apple account of a juvenile.
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Approve who can and can't contact your child
Bark
You can already block unknown numbers in Messages, and iOS 26 lets parents approve which numbers can text or call their child. When your child gets a message or a call from an unknown number, they'll have to send a request to their parents to allow them to receive the message or call.
So if your kid's friend wants to call them, you will have to approve their number. But if your 12-year-old is getting weird, adult-sounding messages, you can block that sender.
This feature is available on third-party apps, potentially letting parents approve who their child chats with, follows and becomes friends with in apps like Instagram, but developers of those apps have to adopt Apple's framework first.
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